7. Before the introduction of the chimney, it was customary to make the fire in a hole or pit in the centre or some other part of the floor, under an opening formed in the roof, which, in unfavorable weather, could be closed by a moveable covering. Among the Romans, the hearth or fire-place was located in the atrium or hall, and around it the lares, or household gods, were placed. To avoid being infested with smoke, they burned dry wood soaked in the lees of oil. In warming other apartments of the house, they used portable furnaces, in which were placed embers and burning coals.
8. It is said by Seneca, who flourished about the middle of the first century of the Christian era, that in his time, a particular kind of pipes was invented, and affixed to the walls of buildings, through which heat from a subterranean furnace was made to circulate. By this means, the rooms were heated more equally. In the southern parts of Italy and Spain, there are still very few chimneys. The same may be said of many other countries, where the climate is pleasant or very warm.
9. Hollinshead, who wrote during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, thus describes the rudeness of the preceding generation in the arts of life: "There were very few chimneys even in capital towns: the fire was laid to the wall, and the smoke issued out at the roof, or door, or window. The houses were wattled, and plastered over with clay; and all the furniture and utensils were of wood. The people slept on straw pallets, with a log of wood for a pillow."
THE PLASTERER.
1. In modern practice, plastering occurs in many departments of architecture. It is more particularly applied to the ceilings and interior walls of buildings, and also in rough-casting on their exterior.
2. In plastering the interior parts of buildings, three coatings of mortar are commonly applied in succession. The mortar for the first coat is composed of about twelve parts of sand, six of lime, and three of hair, with a sufficient quantity of water to bring it to the proper consistence; that for the second coat contains a less proportion of lime and hair; and that for the third coat is composed exclusively of lime and water.
3. The mortar is applied directly to the solid wall, or to thin strips of wood called laths, which have been fastened with small nails to the joists, and other parts of the frame of the building. The tools with which the plasterer applies the mortar are trowels of different sizes and shapes, and the hawk. The latter instrument is a board about a foot square, with a short handle projecting at right angles from the bottom.
4. In all well-finished rooms, cornices are run at the junction of the wall and ceiling. The materials of these cornices are lime, water, and plaster. The lime and water are first incorporated, and the plaster is added with an additional quantity of water, as it may be needed for immediate application. The composition is applied in a semifluid state, but the plaster causes it to set, or to become solid immediately. In the mean time, the workman applies to it, in a progressive manner, the edge of a solid piece of wood, in which an exact profile of the proposed cornice has been cut.
5. Ornaments of irregular shape are cast in moulds of wax or plaster of Paris, and these are formed on models of the proposed figures in clay. Such ornaments were formerly the productions of manual operations performed by ingenious men called ornamental plasterers. The casts are all made of the purest plaster; and, after having been polished, they are fastened to the proper place with the same substance saturated with water.
6. The branch of this business called rough-casting, consists in applying mortar to the exterior walls of houses. The mode in which the work is performed varies but little from that adopted in plastering the walls of apartments. It, however, requires only two coats of the cement; and, when these have been applied, the surface is marked off in imitation of masonry. It is likewise sometimes colored, that it may resemble marble or some other stone.